Bootleggers Modern American Smokehouse (3 Plates)

Outside Bootleggers Modern American Smokehouse

Bootlegging is illegal but there should be an exception for bootlegging good food. Bootleggers Modern American Smokehouse in Phoenix, AZ is taking food to illegally good levels. Who doesn't want good food?

Seating inside the restaurant

I got to try their food for lunch on a rainy Sunday. I was immediately greeted by the scent of barbeque as soon as I got out of the car. The aroma of burnt wood and meat started to excite my taste buds. It was truly a modern day smokehouse feel when I walked in to the restaurant. Nice tables with orange chairs (GO SUNS!) to my left, a bar and long tables to my right, big booths for large groups in front of me and flat screens TVs all the way at the back. Everything felt very modern but still felt every bit a smokehouse.

The Bar 

TV at the back

Service was nice. We were greeted at the door with a smile and offered drinks a soon as we got to our table. I asked the bartender (which was our server on that day) to switch the TV to a different game and she was kind enough to advice me that she will have the channel changed soon as she finishes the drinks that she was preparing for everyone at the bar. It took a while and another similar request from another table but we finally got our channel changed. During our meal, our server constantly checked on us to make sure we had everything we needed. Again, the service was just nice.

The Lunch Menu

The food was a little above average. I see the reason why they were given awards for Best Sandwich (Phoenix New Times), People's Choice for Tacos and Best Craft Cocktail (Arizona Taco Festival) in 2013. I ordered their Apple Brandy Shandy ($9), Cottage Fries ($5), Mac & Cheese ($9) and the BBQ Express Lunch ($15). All of them satisfied my taste buds. Everything was tasty and balanced. The only down side, the food is pricey and the serving size was too small. For a barbeque joint, you would expect a hearty meal that would satisfy your cowboy gut. I was informed that they heav a different menu for dinner. Since I was there for lunch, their menu did not shout out bbq except for their BBQ Express Lunch.

Apple Brandy Shandy

The Apple Brandy Shandy Moonshine Cocktail was very refreshing. The tangy apple flavor cuts through the strong moonshine bitterness. Since it was served on a mason jar, it was able to keep the moonshine character while still staying true to the modern theme. It was a great starter for a good meal.

Cottage Fries

The Cottage Fries was a delight. Maybe the best of what I ordered during my visit. The thinly sliced potato were fried to crispy perfection. The cajun flavors complimented the crispy potato fries. It felt like eating potato chips. It had a good spicy kick on each bite. It wasn't overly seasoned. In fact, the seasoning was right on.

Mac & Cheese

I love their Mac & Cheese! The flavor wasn't flat. You get a little bit of saltyness and lots of the creaminess which I always love from a mac and cheese. They combine four types of cheese which complimented each other. Served on a skillet, the mac and cheese is kept warm to a perfect cheesy bite. Love it but the serving is a little too small for $9.

The BBQ express lunch I had was composed of 2 slices of beef brisket, 1/2 cup of pulled pork, cole slaw and tortillas. Very good smoky flavor on the brisket. I love the burned parts that added character and flavor to the meat. The pulled pork had a sweet and tangy finish. Both brisket and pulled pork were tender and very easy to chew. The coleslaw was a little flat. I would have wanted a little bit of seasoning. Maybe a little more salt. The tortilla, hmmm... it tasted like a tortilla. The star of the plate were the brisket and pulled pork which was served on a small skillet. Again, it is really good but I think its way too pricey. For $15, I would have wanted 2 more slices of the brisket and maybe another spoon of the pulled pork.

BBQ Express Lunch

I would come back for the food. But maybe next time I'll try the dinner menu. Maybe i'll leave my cowboy appetite at home on my next visit. I am always willing to pay well for good food. As long as the serving size is comparable to the price. At this point, Bootleggers Modern American Smokehouse is only a serving size (and maybe a few more BBQ menu options) away to becoming the next best BBQ joint in town. 

Au Cheval (3 Plates)

Another burger review? Yup... I think I need to cut down on my addiction to beef patties topped with cheese and toasted buns. Is there a group for burgaholic anonymous meetings? I think I need help.

My addiction has brought me to Chicago and to a place rated by Bon Appetit as a perfect griddle burger. The place is called Au Cheval. Au Cheval is a high-end diner that serves their customers until 1AM. They also serve wines and beers from different zipcodes. Aside from their famous burger, they also offer some gourmet and upscale options like bone marrow and foie gras. They have the out of the ordinary as well such as chicken liver and duck heart. There are bold options and the safe options. The burgers, i'll put them down under the safe options. When its safe, it must be good.

Outside Au Cheval

I went to Au Cheval on a late Saturday night. I got there around 9:30PM. That late at night, the wait time was two and a half hours. So plan ahead and get ready to wait for a very.. very.. very long time. It would help they had more seats at their bar. Unfortunately, only 6 seats at the bar were available for waiting guests. With a wait time that long, you might as well just get a reservation for the 6 bar seats. Luckily, their staff is very attentive. Which was a big plus. Someone spotted us waiting by the bar and immediately offered us their bar menu. The drinks made the wait a little more bearable amidst the very lightly lit room. I say lightly lit to a point that you would need your phone light just to read the menu. Blame it on the concept. It was supposed to make the place feel cozy, private and a little mysterious.

Like I said, service wasn't bad at all. Though the wait time was for more than 2 hours, we were given a seat at the bar an hour early. Not to say one hour and a half of wait time while standing was fun. Food was served fast and it was served hot. Too hot in fact I burned my tongue on my first bite of the beef cheek marmalade that was served together with the bone marrow. I always find it nice when servers warn me to be careful if they are serving charcoal hot food. I just didn't get that warning from my server. Combine that with more than an hour of waiting to eat, you have disaster. Oh.. I had disaster.

Watching the crew from our bar seat

The food was really good but it wasn't over the top good.

The Menu

Roasted Bone Marrow
with Beef cheek Marmalade

Let me start with the roasted bone marrow served with beef cheek marmalade and toast. The bone marrow was cooked well. It was creamy, salty and very fresh. On a toast and together with the sweet and chewy beef cheek marmalade, it was a bite of flavor and texture explosion. My favorite of all the layers was actually the beef marmalade. Overall combined, it did not wow me as much as the cost. At $17.95, this bone marrow breaks my bone just a little too much.

Double Cheeseburger
w/ Bacon and Fried Egg

Let's get to the burger. DO NOT EXPECT GOURMET BURGERS. Their burgers are very simple. It had layers of beef patties, cheddar cheese, light spread of dijonnaise, thin slices of pickled dill and toasted bun. I ordered the double cheeseburger which actually had 3 layers of beef patty. The beef component was seasoned well. You can taste the freshness of the beef that was used for the burger. I did miss some of the fat component that I expect from a burger patty. I think the burger lost a lot of the moisture from the griddle. The patties came out a little dry. The cheese however was perfectly melted. It hugged that beef patty like a cheese blanket. I ordered the burger with bacon and fried egg. In my opinion, it took away the focus out of the simplicity of the burger. If I get a chance to try this burgers again, I'll stay away from the fried egg and bacon. The bacon is really good (in fact, the best of my meal). There is a reason why the menu says cheeseburger not cheeseburger with bacon and egg. Overall, keeping the simplicity of the burger was really brave since the price was a whopping $12.95. At that price, i was expecting gold on my burger. The only gold I found on my burger was the cheddar cheese. The rest was plain, simple and ordinary.

The burger layers. Double Cheeseburger has 3 beef patties

Dining at Au Cheval taught me a few things. Not all things famous are good. It applies to celebrities, so why not food? Not all things are worth the wait. I waited for an hour and a half to try their burgers. I could have gone to a certain in and out place or a place where I can be greeted by a clown and maybe get myself the same burger satisfaction without the wait time. Au Cheval is a nice place. But, really? Is Au Cheval burger worth the time and $12.95 of my hard earned money?

Paradise Valley Burger Co. (3 Plates)

When somebody tells me that they had a really good burger at a certain burger joint, my mind goes into a frenzy to get a taste of that burger. I turn into a blood hungry piranha or should I say a burger hungry food blogger. When a friend mentioned to me that Paradise Valley Burger Co. offers some really good burgers, I knew I needed to get a taste of it.  

As I have pointed out in my previous blogs, a good burger should have high quality juicy patty, cheesy cheese, soft bread, tasty sauce and perfectly complimenting toppings. In my opinion the burgers at Paradise Valley Burger Co. somewhat and someway met all of those criteria. Good burgers added with a  relaxing vibe of the restaurant and the not so bad service, I would definitely come back for another burger addiction satisfaction.

The place had a very playful and relaxing feel. The colorful green and orange walls with the classic blackboard menu made me feel like its kindergarten all over again.  There were enough seats inside and additional seats outside. Every table had a napkin holder, mustard, ketchup, black grounded pepper and sriracha. Overall, the restaurant was clean, playful and family friendly.

The service on the other hand needs to match the feel of the place. I cannot fully enjoy a burger if it wasn't served with a smile. It may be my fault though. I came in 30 minutes before the closing time  and maybe (this is me giving the benefit of the doubt) people are already tired from a long and busy day. I can't smile if I'm still busy 30 minutes before I leave the office. Maybe I shouldn't expect to get a smile everytime or a recommendation of what is the best out of their menu or maybe I'm just being dramatic. They did replace my side order when I changed my mind 5 minutes after ordering. So I guess, I was just looking for a little effort to make me feel more welcome.

The food was ok. Not over the top good. Not bad either. It was just OK. I blame it on my bad order choice this time. I wanted to try their special for the week. For that week, it was "Cockeyed Cowboy". It was already after I ordered when I asked what was the best seller out of their menu. I was told that the Brulee and Beach House were the stars of the show. My wife got the Brulee, but we went for the healthy option that had a portabello mushroom patty instead of the traditional beef patty. So how was it????

Burger of the week - Cockeyed Cowboy. It's really nice when a burger gives you a certain crunch on every bite. Say a crispy bacon or the toasted bun or maybe that crispy fried onion rings. But when you bite on a slightly popped popcorn on a burger, hmmm... I think something is really wrong. Don't get me wrong. I am a popcorn lover, if t is properly popped. I just feel like a slightly popped popcorn may have been and after thought to give the cowboy burger a corn like finish that turned out to be a little corny. What's so cowboy about popcorn anyway? I get the pulled pork. It was cooked very well and the smoke flavour (or maybe it was the barbecue sauce) was really good. The beef patty was a little dry. Seasoned well but like I said, a little dry. What really made the burger OK (refer to previous paragraph) was the dill pickle. They make good pickle. Another component that I loved was the poblano creme. It gave the burger a slight kick that complimented the sweet pulled pork. The burger at $9.50, seemed like it was trying a little too hard. 

The Brûlée. Now this burger has some potential. We made a mistake of substituting the beef patty with the portabello mushroom. Not that the portabello mushroom was bad (the patty substitute was actually very good), but only because beef patties are sooooo much better. The portabello mushroom was cooked well. It was not bland and was very juicy. I would love to have it on top of the beef patty on my next visit. It may cut through the dryness of the beef and eventually make the burger so much better. The creamy acidity from the Havarti cheese complimented well with the fried egg, bacon and toasted Brioche bun. Oh.. and the Brioche is just a bed of goodness. I think the bun is really the kicker at this joint. Something I would definitely comeback and crave for someday. The pickled onions were a surprise. I think they perfected the pickling process. The verdict on the portabello brûlée burger is definitely more than OK. What more if we had beef patty? Maybe it really deserves a second visit. Maybe I missed on a really good burger.

Overall, Paradise Valley Burger Co. is not a bad choice for a burger binge. The place is really nice and clean, the service only needs a little bit of sunshine, and the food has a lot of potential. Would I come back? Yes. They deserve it. Would I recommend it? Maybe. They are good enough to get a maybe and an OK.